REGION: Caltrans rolls out barrier-moving machine

$12 million investment is key feature of I-15 express lanes

SAN DIEGO -- They weigh 30 tons. They are 58 feet long. They get
five miles to the gallon.

And at a top speed of 10 mph, the region's two new "barrier
transfer machines" can shift a mile of heavy, concrete freeway
barriers in six or seven minutes and give motorists in a
particularly busy direction of travel an extra lane.

Chances are you've seen a similar machine in action on the
Coronado Bridge. Some day, you will have to get used to sharing the
road with the truck-like devices when you drive on Interstate
15.

The plan is to use the machines to regularly rearrange the
number of southbound and northbound express lanes -- those under
construction on I-15 -- so that they give priority to the heaviest
traffic. However, the machines are expected to be used sparingly at
first.

The two machines were delivered to the local California
Department of Transportation office a month ago at a cost of $1
million each, said Pedro Orso-Delgado, Caltrans' San Diego district
director.

Coupled with the $10 million moveable barriers being built along
eight miles of I-15, the machines represent a $12 million
investment, he said.

Caltrans officials, in coordination with a regional
transportation planning agency, the San Diego Association of
Governments, rolled out one of them for the media Monday in a
midday demonstration at Highway 56.

"It's kind of like a zipper," Orso-Delgado said.

With three sets of churning wheels, the machine grabbed a chain
of linked barriers lining the freshly painted white stripes on the
glistening new concrete in the center of I-15, picked them three
inches off the ground and moved them 14 feet over to create a new
lane.

The individual barrier pieces are 40 inches long and weigh 1,500
pounds.

The ability to shift barriers is a central feature of the $1.3
billion face-lift of I-15 that is nearing its first significant
milestone.

By late September, officials plan to open a 4.5-mile section of
express lanes between Highway 56 and Rancho Bernardo Road.

Work is continuing on the 3.5-mile section between Rancho
Bernardo and Via Rancho Parkway at the south end of Escondido that
is due to open by January.

Workers are laying down four express lanes.

Reserved for car pools, toll-paying solo commuters and buses,
those lanes will operate much like the two existing reversible
lanes in the middle between Highways 56 and 163. However, they will
allow two-way traffic. The long-term plan is to flip-flop from
morning to afternoon between three lanes in the direction of
heaviest travel and one in the other.

And that's where the machines come in -- they can shift the
lanes to accommodate the changing traffic flows.

But don't expect to see much changing for now.

Because there are only two express lanes south of Highway 56 and
officials want the new lanes to line up with those, they intend to
arrange the new moveable barriers so there are two lanes in each
direction most of the time.

Gary Gallegos, the association's executive director, said the
exception would be during a major automobile accident or disaster
that required the use of more lanes to move jammed traffic.

Even after 2012, when Caltrans expects to finishing building
four express lanes along the entire 20-mile stretch between
Highways 163 and 78, there will be minimal shifting -- until
traffic volume reaches the point where three express lanes in a
particular direction are required in rush-hour, Gallegos said.

But even though the barrier-moving machines won't be in action a
lot in their early years, it still will be needed from time to
time, Gallegos said. And, he said, "It's got to be ready to go on a
moment's notice."

It takes two people to operate one of the machines, according to
Caltrans.

Should one break down, there will be no reason to panic.
Gallegos said it could be hooked up to a tow truck and pulled.

Association spokesman David Hicks said barrier-moving machines
are in operation on 15 highways around the world, including 11 in
the United States.

That includes three locations in New York City, three in
Philadelphia, and one each in Boston, Dallas, Honolulu and
Washington, D.C., as well as the Coronado Bridge, Hicks said.